


Promise

by edourado



Series: Hell's Kitchen Chronicles [69]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, angsty, kastle - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 17:15:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10881342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edourado/pseuds/edourado
Summary: Prompt: "I clutched my life, and wished it kept. My dearest love, I’m not done yet."





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [carrythesky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrythesky/gifts).



Funny how these things happened.

For the longest time, Frank did not care if he lived or died. When he dodged bullets, it was because he had a mission. To find the ones that took his family from him, the ones who killed his wife and his kids, the ones responsible for him having to see his children bloodied and not breathing, his love’s heart not beating, no life in her eyes. That was what kept him up, what made him get up in the morning and what made him try and save his own life from time to time.

And then, her.

The paths that led him here really didn’t matter anymore. All it did was that Frank has walked them, step by step and, and before he knew it, someone cared about him. Someone cried for him, smiled at him, trusted him and welcomed him. Fought for him.

Before, when he was nothing to no one, he lived. Walked away from unthinkable situations, beaten and bloody, but standing.

Now that there was a heart that beat for him again, he was going to die by the hand of someone else’s enemy.

He saw Karen’s face and he knew he was hallucinating. She was miles and miles and miles away, safe in that hel holel of a city while he hunted people down, people that did not have their eyes on her yet, but he could not risk it. Damn it, he could not risk it.

Red’s enemies were, by definition, her enemies. Nelson’s enemies, that nurse’s enemies. And as much as Frank didn’t really mind saving their lives by proxy, it was hers that mattered the most, he was doing it because they knew who she was, they knew who Red was, they knew she mattered to him.

So he took it upon himself. And Red told him, the righteous bastard, he told him to wait, to stay out of it, to trust him, but Frank didn’t listen, because he could not, for the life of him, wait around for them to find her.

He found the small dart on his neck and it struck him odd, that they would attack like that. Subtle. But maybe the goal was to make him suffer.

His fever began and he lost his balance, managing to, at the very least, close the door to the shed behind him before collapsing, his vision dancing and his skin erupting like it was on fire, he could feel the sweat beading down towards the floor.

And he saw her. All the times she had made him feel, unintentionally, all the times he found himself smiling, averting his gaze from her because she was hard to look at. Too beautiful.

He called her name to the ceiling and she called his back, reaching her hand, asking him to come with her, follow her, it’s quiet here.

Frank knew it wasn’t real because his imagination did not measure up to the feeling of when she was really touching him. He always thought he remembered it right, but he didn’t. It was always a shock when her fingers found his skin again. Every single time.

When he woke back up, his head was spinning and he could not yet sit up, but the echoes in his mind were gone. He could see it was day, could see his gun right there by his hip, his vest was tight against his chest, the dart that had poisoned him still secure in his left hand.

He picked up his phone and dialed the number he hated having in his speed dial.

“Frank?” he answered, voice already frantic. “Where the hell are you?”

“Red”, was all he managed to say before Karen appeared before his eyes again, smiling bright and warm, calling him, come with me, Frank.

The phone fell to the ground and he could hear Red’s distant voice calling him, and he knew that one was real. The one in his head, though, hers, was better, it made him feel better, he wanted to go with her.

But he knew it was a lie. His imagination was not that good, she was always better when she was there, always. This was not her.

Frank closed his eyes and focused on his blood. “Flush it out”, he thought. “Flush it out so you can go back to her, don’t die, don’t you die now, don’t die, don’t die.”

While she smiled and he ran the tip of his fingers on her face, her voice distant even when she was right there in front of him, he felt a palm on his mouth, and a bitter taste. Karen disappeared and he saw eyes, dark and focused, looking at him, and he swallowed, and Karen was there again. The pressure was off his mouth, the taste gone.

He promised himself he would kiss her if he got to see her again. It seemed so stupid now, all that reasoning and the useless distance he kept from her. If he’s gonna die, he might as well know how she tastes like.

(Except he did know. He never kissed her, she never kissed him, but he knew, he knew it on his tongue and his brain and his eyelids.

If he didn’t die, he would kiss her and make sure.)

He opened his eyes again when he felt himself being moved. There were people, it was dark, he was being turned sideways and there were fingers inside his mouth, then he was gagging, his stomach was convulsing and he was vomiting whatever it was someone with dark eyes had made him swallow before.

He wished the image of her would come back.

When he could breathe again, hands turned him to lay on his back once more, and there was someone on top of him, prying his eyes open with their fingers, a light blinding him, one eye at a time. He moved to push them out, get rid of them, but then his arms were pinned to the floor.

“Whoa, ok, calm down”, said a deep voice he didn’t recognize. “Wake up, man, come on.”

“We need to move him, he needs an IV now, or he’s not gonna make it.”

That voice he knew.

Opening his eyes, he saw Karen smiling big again, but he blinked it away (the real one was better). When his vision came into focus again, the nurse, Claire, was looking at him with a frown.

“Frank. Do you remember me?”

Looking around, he saw a big man holding his arms down. He didn’t know him.

“Frank!” she called again. “I’m Claire. Do you remember me?”

He wanted to say yes, but his voice didn’t come out, so he nodded.

“Ok, good”, she said, climbing down from him. “We need to go. Luke, get Matt, we need to get him home now. Like right now.”

.:.

The theory was they tried to weaken him. Frank was too strong to waste, Red said.

After that place that looked like a hospital, but wasn’t, after the needle Claire put in his arm, after Red’s theories, after his fever broke and after he said he had to go, he was knocking on her door. Still not steady on his feet, his head still spun, but he had to be there.

When she opened the door, his heart tightened at the sight of her face. Her real face, not the half assed one his mind conjured up during poison induced hallucinations.

“Frank? You ok?” she asked, her voice careful, and he smiled at her. He was sure the sight was not a good one. “You look like shit.”

Stepping inside and closing the door behind him, he swallowed past the lump in his throat and reached for her.

He had a promise to keep.  


End file.
